A Long Watch: War, Captivity and Return in Sri Lanka

by Sunila Galappatti (Retold by)

Overview

A Long Watch offers a story of human complexity amid entrenched narratives of Sri Lanka's long civil war.
Pulled from a dark ocean after a battle at sea, Commodore Boyagoda became the highest-ranking prisoner detained by the Tamil Tigers. For eight years, he lived at close quarters with his declared enemy, his imprisonment punctuated by high-level talks about his fate, but also by extended conversations with his jailers and scratch games of badminton played in jungle clearings. Throughout, he observed his captors and fellow prisoners acutely, and with discreet empathy for the lives of others undone by war.
A memoir retold in Ajith Boyagoda's temperate voice, his is an unblinking relation of experiences difficult, moving and ironic. From going to sea, to war, imprisonment and eventual homecoming, he accepted successive realities as ordinary, in order to survive them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849046404
Publisher:	Hurst
Publication date:	09/01/2016
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Sunila Galappatti has worked with other people to tell their stories, as a dramaturg, theatre director and editor. She started her working life at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Live Theatre, Newcastle and is a former Director of the Galle Literary Festival. She has recently been a Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Brown University; reflecting on processes carried out in different parts of the world to curate public histories. She lives in Sri Lanka.

Editorial Reviews

"The best book yet on the war in Sri Lanka [...] It is subtle and intimate, human and generous. The author has distilled conversations about that period into a remarkable book. It is brilliant."—Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient

"A deeply nuanced, non-sensational book: it is bold, yet tender [...] an invaluable, close-up account of the ways in which those who fight in these wars survive, and those who don't."— Sonali Deraniyagala, author of Wave: A Memoir of Life after the Tsunami

'Clear, vivid, and elegant, without a trace of either false heroics or self-pity.' — Michael Frayn

'A moving testimonial to the depth and strangeness of human attachment. It recounts the other, greater destruction that war brings to society — the destruction of optimism, tolerance and social fibre.' — Rana Dasgupta, author of Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First-Century Delhi

'A fascinating, moving memoir, narrated with stark honesty and elegance of thought. Commadore Boyagoda and Sunila Galappatti illuminate, to great effect, a small, dim corner of a long, heated war. A Long Watch is storytelling at its very finest.' — Samanth Subramanian, author of This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War

'The simple, almost matter of fact way the protagonist narrates his story throws into vivid focus the marvellous detail he gives us of the world he suddenly finds himself fallen into. His compassionate vision of the "enemy", his fairness, shine through the pages of this book. A landmark contribution.' — Shyam Selvadurai, author of The Hungry Ghosts

"Sunila Galappatti captures Boyagoda's remarkably tempered voice as he recalls war, captivity and homecoming." —The Globe and Mail

From the Publisher